Election Results

Making Sense of the Colorado Election

By Howard Rothman, 11-01-05

Update, 10:50 p.m.: Oops! The Denver Post reports “Pot Issue Goes Up in Smoke�; the Post’s results box, on the same Web page, says “Denver Pot: Yes – 55,035, No – 47,929.�

Ref. C. is clearly winning. A great day if you’re a child growing up in Colorado. Ref. D.? Well, let’s just say the Sec. Of State’s office has a long day ahead.

Update, 9:40 p.m.: With just under half of precincts reporting, Denver Channel 7 is reporting Ref. C a clear winner, with 53%. D is now locked 50-50. Stay tuned for more.

With several media outlets reporting Referendum C appears near victory at just after 10:30 p.m. Tuesday night, it seems Colorado voters have shown that they are willing to reach deep into their pockets when they have the opportunity to move the state forward. Combined with positive results in a number of other proposed funding measures across the state, voters here have once again proven that they are willing to increase taxes -- or trim their tax refunds -- in order to pay for the kinds of critical services and programs that have slowly been decimated as tax-cutting proponents had their sway in recent years.

The big winners are the people of Colorado, who did not let self-serving politicians from inside the state and elsewhere tell them what to do. The big losers are GOP gubernatorial hopeful Mark Holtzman and Independence Institute president Jon Caldera, who mis-read the public sentiment by continuing to believe tax-cuts remain more important than vital programs and services.

While it remains to be seen how it all shakes out with Referendum D, voters along the Front Range also appear to have approved tax increases Tuesday in Denver, Arvada, Evergreen, Glendale, Lakewood and Longmont. Several other measures did lose, including a public safety funding issue in Aurora, proving that voters are not in lockstep on any issue and advocates still must sell their particulars in order to convince the populace that tax increases are worth it.

But when the issue is truly worthwhile, apparently, even calling in the national anti-tax calvary -- in this case heavyweights like Dick Armey and Grover Nordquist -- won't help.

For those trying to get a handle on early election results, the Rocky Mountain News Results Page was a disappointment most of the evening as it remained inexplicably inoperable until almost 9:30 p.m. The rival Denver Post Election Central was far more helpful, even if it did require clicking back and forth to follow the state's key races. And I'd still like to know why the Secretary of State's website still had no links for vote results as the clock neared midnight?

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